I'm currently working on William Inge's Splendor in the Grass. I am Ginny Stamper. This morning rehearsal was incredibly rewarding and wild. I had a blast. I'm also looking at the curriculum for Spring term and feeling much better about the registration process this time around. I will be taking:

Theatre and Arts for Peace and Reconciliation
Adaptation II
and hopefully, two of the following:
Reading and Writing Poetry
American Theatre Now
Developmental Psychology after the Theories
Reading the Body

I struggled a great deal this morning with my body. I was moving a lot, working on a drunken fast-paced, accelerated version of The Charleston, and it hit me how insecure I still feel, after all this time, about my body. I was going to town in heels like a crazy woman and the only things I could think about were breathing and how fat I must be to other people around me. Even so, though, the lace black slip I was wearing (along with the heels) helped me to justify the actions of my character and helped me to forget about my own insecurities and body for awhile. It was nice. I like being able to forget how ugly I feel most of the time. Don't get me wrong, I don't think actors should use acting as some coping mechanism for a problem in their life, but the fact is: sometimes a girl's just gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

Sick day and a poem by Arda Collins

Garden Apartments by Arda Collins

It was raining a little.

I wondered if I were outside

if I would get wet.

I was in the car.

I passed a school.

I didn't really know where I was.

I had lived near here for a while.

It was a quiet, residential neighborhood,

garden apartments in the back of the town.

I parked near a driveway and turned the car off.

They were basically ugly.

It's no one's fault though.

I wondered what I would do the rest of the day.

People were running their lives from here.

They had a coffee table and mugs with writing on them.

They had the rest of their lives. It was just like the other day.

The weather was warm for the first time.

I was out walking.

A young couple came out of a house.

She had just taken a shower,

blow-dried her hair and put make up on,

and put on light-colored pants and a t-shirt.

I smelled her shampoo

when they passed, and I felt afraid of the day.

The rest of the walk was better.

It smelled like rain in the car. There was no one around.

I heard my jacket when I moved.

I thought how god loves this place;

the grass was coming in, and the crocuses.

What if someone died, or got fired,

or vomited alone in the middle of the night?

The apartments were wood on the outside.

They were stained red like the color of a picnic table.

I was so ugly, I wasn't sure I'd even be able to drive.

Pillow Talk, T-shirt and Shaking Hands: One More Reason I'm Attending Bennington

In exactly one month I will be arriving at Bennington. This morning I spoke a woman who helped me set up my college e-mail account. I successfully logged-in only to find an email reminding me that my health forms were due last week (yeah- about that-). This exact email also included a link to the following:

(From Bennington College's website)

For your listening pleasure: a collection of music composed and performed by current Bennington students and recent alumni. Spanning the genres from indie rock to Celtic to classical, it's a lively (but by no means exhaustive!) sample of what we're playing and listening to right now. The list was compiled by Sarah McAbee, Bennington College Class of 2007.

Needless to say, I'm pretty happy right about now.